When are the 78s finally making a comeback?

[Dmitry]

Vinyl record sales surpass CDs for the first time since the 1980s https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/13/tech/vinyl-records-cd-sales-riaa/index.html#:~:text=Vinyl%20records%20accounted%20for%20%24232.1,Recording%20Industry%20Association%20of%20America.

As CNN's Jazmin "Pulitzer"  Goodwin succinctly explains for those now privy to the medium: Vinyl records, also known as "records pressed on wax," were commonplace before other formats, such as cassette tapes and CDs. 

I'm hoping that the 78 is due to resurge any day now, judging by the success of it's slower-spinning cousin. If the president-elect continues on with his pitch to play records for kids at night, and his wife cranks up the Victrola, tucking him in on a national tv at 9pm, the public will finally realize that that shellac is where it's at.

 

Edited December 24, 2020 by Dmitry

[JSngry]

I'd imagine that there are far worse fates in live than being tucked in at night by Dr.Jill Biden!

[Dmitry]

...Like being turked by a syphilitic bear?

 

[JSngry]

No idea what that means, but is sounds awful! And probably is!

[medjuck]

Dmitry gets political again.  I guess he's only against it when it's anti-Trump. 

[Dmitry]

Just now, medjuck said:

Dmitry gets political again.  I guess he's only against it when it's anti-Trump. 

You're just jealous that you're not being tucked into bed by a hot Eastern European nude model.

 

[medjuck]

When my son was studying sound engineering he read a book called "Perfecting Sound Forever" by Greg Milner wherein, after a long diatribe against compression,  he ends with a story about a guy who does acoustic  recordings on cylinders and thinks that gives you the purest sound. 

[JSngry]

9 minutes ago, Dmitry said:

You're just jealous that you're not being tucked into bed by a hot Eastern European nude model.

That's fine if you're into getting your bed pissed on...not really for me, but hey, different strokes, etc.

[Dmitry]

If we are in a purely analog realm, theoretically the 78 makes perfect sense for the best consumer analog medium [aside from the reel to reel]. Wider grooves, more space between grooves.

 

[medjuck]

19 minutes ago, Dmitry said:

You're just jealous that you're not being tucked into bed by a hot Eastern European nude model.

 

I'll stick with the woman I've been married to for 40 years. 

[JSngry]

We're talking about playback mediums here, and I don't think that any existing analog recording or playback system can cover the frequency range of digital technology.

I hated digital almost as much as I hate some stranger pissing on my bed for a looooong time. and I still like to hear analog sound to playback things that were recorded that way. But digital got figured out, and these days...LPs make no sense to me for new recordings.

78s & 45s, though....there's more there than meets the casual ear. Like Dimitry said, wider grooves and faster speed...45s in particular, from the days when that medium mattered in the marketplace...AM Radio, jukeboxes, and cheap record players, the people who made those products knew what they were going to be used for and proceeded accordingly. You really DON'T want to hear that stuff just in cleaned up digital sound, that's an artificial representation of how those records were propagated to their audiences' ears.

But today? New music? Like all retro things, "again" is not a good idea. A dog chasing it's tail gets nothing. A dog chasing a rabbit might get something to eat.

[Dmitry]

The most interesting statistic for me is the following: in the first six months of 2020 physical sales plunged 23% to $376 million. That's CDs, LPs, probably tapes too. Alas no 78s. granted, the pandemic took a large toll. Vinyl records accounted for $232.1 million of music sales in the first half of the year, compared to CDs, which brought in only $129.9 million. Doesn't sound too bad, until the following sales figure comes up - streaming, which includes the revenue of paid streaming, ad-supported streaming and streaming radio, grew 12% to $4.8 billion during the first six months of 2020, RIAA found. 

$360 million in physical sales vs. almost $5 billion in streaming. Of that jazz amounts to less than a pittance. 

https://static.billboard.com/files/2020/07/NielsenMID-YEAR-2020-us-1594300786.pdf?_ga=2.169663138.2012381347.1600015734-2030702033.1600015731

Scroll to next to last page, for stats on jazz sales media types to finally appear. You won't find jazz anywhere else in the Billboard report, in terms of the real $ figures. The figures are so small that they don't bother printing them. I reckon the same applies to classical music.
Jazz album sales have been very poor for years. It's the death spiral now. Bonafide old people and those soon to be old farts, like most of us here, are doing all the heavy lifting, according to the highly-scientific statistical analysis I painstakingly undertook in the How old are YOU thread. The writing is on the wall. Bird Lives, but we are dying. I blame everything and everyone.

Edited December 27, 2020 by Dmitry

[Big Beat Steve]

I am afraid you aren't far off the mark.

Unless many of those young'uns who increasingly buy vinyl again turn increasingly to jazz. It would be nice but how likely is that?

The jazz section of my favorite 2nd hand records shop here is still going strong but unfortunately I couldn't coax the staff into telling details about the average age of the jazz vinyl buyers. Those that I do see when I browse there are rarely from the rather younger set. Very few below, say, 40.
Just asked my son who has a side job in a record shop at his university town, and he tells me they every now and then have younger ones in the shop who ask for recommendations for "getting started" in jazz, but they ususally are in their late 20s and up. But still ...

[GA Russell]

I see advertisements for new vinyl, but (except for Taylor Swift) they all seem to be best sellers from the '70s.

[medjuck]

Years ago I remember thinking: if everything is available all the time do I need to own it?  Well, not "everything" is available, but close to it.  (Members of this board would probably find many   things they want to hear or see are not on streaming platforms.)

BTW Does that report mention radio?  Has on-demand streaming cut into radio's audience? 

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Indeed not everything. I've been trying to replace a screwed up K7 of Ami Koita accompanied by Afrisa International for some while but I appear to be the only person in the world who's ever heard of it. And both were top-selling acts in their respective fields, not so far back in the day.

MG

[jcam_44]

On 12/27/2020 at 4:31 AM, Dmitry said:

The most interesting statistic for me is the following: in the first six months of 2020 physical sales plunged 23% to $376 million. That's CDs, LPs, probably tapes too. Alas no 78s. granted, the pandemic took a large toll. Vinyl records accounted for $232.1 million of music sales in the first half of the year, compared to CDs, which brought in only $129.9 million. Doesn't sound too bad, until the following sales figure comes up - streaming, which includes the revenue of paid streaming, ad-supported streaming and streaming radio, grew 12% to $4.8 billion during the first six months of 2020, RIAA found. 

$360 million in physical sales vs. almost $5 billion in streaming. Of that jazz amounts to less than a pittance. 

https://static.billboard.com/files/2020/07/NielsenMID-YEAR-2020-us-1594300786.pdf?_ga=2.169663138.2012381347.1600015734-2030702033.1600015731

Scroll to next to last page, for stats on jazz sales media types to finally appear. You won't find jazz anywhere else in the Billboard report, in terms of the real $ figures. The figures are so small that they don't bother printing them. I reckon the same applies to classical music.
Jazz album sales have been very poor for years. It's the death spiral now. Bonafide old people and those soon to be old farts, like most of us here, are doing all the heavy lifting, according to the highly-scientific statistical analysis I painstakingly undertook in the How old are YOU thread. The writing is on the wall. Bird Lives, but we are dying. I blame everything and everyone.

This is only soundscan numbers though which would omit Bandcamp and I’m assuming direct purchase from label/artist unless they are reporting them to soundscan, which would seem pointless. I think believing the death of a medium based on numbers from outlets that no longer exist (tower records, Sam goody, etc) is a bit misleading. 

[Dmitry]

On 12/31/2020 at 2:05 PM, jcam_44 said:

This is only soundscan numbers though which would omit Bandcamp and I’m assuming direct purchase from label/artist unless they are reporting them to soundscan, which would seem pointless. I think believing the death of a medium based on numbers from outlets that no longer exist (tower records, Sam goody, etc) is a bit misleading. 

I'm not understanding the reference to the [dead and buried] Tower and Sam Goody's. I'm sure it's just me.

I think if only the Amazon's data as their source, that alone would be more than an accurate slice of the sales numbers.

[jcam_44]

2 hours ago, Dmitry said:

I'm not understanding the reference to the [dead and buried] Tower and Sam Goody's. I'm sure it's just me.

I think if only the Amazon's data as their source, that alone would be more than an accurate slice of the sales numbers.

Soundscan numbers have to come from a retailer, which the numbers are decreasing. My point is the cd you used to buy at Best Buy or Tower can’t be purchased there anymore and if you that purchase from the artist it’s not going to be counted for your article. Yes Amazon would give you an idea but what about the albums not available on Amazon? My only point is that the info in the article may not be that accurate.